SUBSCRIBE TO FREEChem.Insider Daily EMAIL NEWSLETTER

The state Public Utilities Commission is considering whether to approve for the second time in just over five years construction of the South Dakota portion of the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Just over $5 million has been spent within the past year at Toledo's drinking water plant that will allow it to quadruple the amount of chemicals needed to get rid of the toxins in the water as it is pumped from the lake.

The deep oceans span more than half the globe and their frigid depths have long been known to contain vast, untapped deposits of prized minerals. These treasures of the abyss, however, have always been out of reach to miners.

Tens of thousands of workers at Brazil's state-owned Petrobras went on a nationwide 24-hour strike on Friday to protest the oil company's plans to sell $15.1 billion worth of assets by the end of next year to help pay off a debt of about $120 billion.